Akagi raised Garigari-kun 10 yen after 25 years, and apologized in a hit ad

In April 2016, Akagi Nyugyo raised its signature ice cream Garigari-kun from 60 to 70 yen — the first non-tax increase since the price was set 25 years earlier. It announced the change with a full apology campaign: a TV spot in which, over folk singer Takada Wataru's song 'Neage' (lyrics include 'a price rise is out of the question'), the president and employees bowed their heads in unison. The humor made the apology ad a talking point, and overseas media picked it up too.

The reluctance had deep roots. In 1979, after the oil shock, Akagi raised its then-lead product Akagi Shigure from 30 to 50 yen and sales collapsed so hard the company nearly went under — the lesson 'a price rise is the last resort' stuck. Garigari-kun, launched in 1981 on the concept that elementary schoolers could buy it casually, built its position on the impact of costing under 100 yen. Akagi held 60 yen for a quarter century — apart from the 1991 consumption-tax adjustment — by grinding out cost improvements, including a roughly 10 billion yen mass-production plant built in 2010.

By 2014 and 2015 the absorption strategy hit its limit and the company was making almost no profit. Management debated the 10-yen rise for over two years — 'no other company would take this long,' said marketing head Fumio Hagihara, who described the raise as a last-resort move after holding out until the margin was nearly gone — and then built the whole communications strategy around owning the increase publicly with the apology ad.

The gamble worked: the playful apology kept customers from leaving, and sales grew 10% after the raise. At 70 yen, Garigari-kun still stood out as dramatically cheaper than anything else in the convenience-store freezer case.

Customer defection never came: sales rose 10% after the raise, and 70-yen Garigari-kun remained the overwhelming low-price pick in convenience-store freezers.

It documents the full arc of breaking a price freeze that is itself the brand promise: the 1979 trauma, the 25-year hold, and the 2-year internal debate over 10 yen.

The result is quantified in the source — sales up 10% after the raise, with the apology ad credited for stopping customer defection.

It shows pricing as communications: the same 10 yen, announced with bowing employees and a folk song, became a viral event rather than a grievance.

The company's cost-absorption record (a 10-billion-yen plant, line specialization) shows how far it stretched before touching the price.

When a price freeze is the brand, don't hide the break in it — stage the raise as self-mocking apology and the increase itself becomes free reach instead of reputational damage.

As of Nikkei Business's December 2021 piece, Garigari-kun's cumulative increase since the 1981 launch was just 20 yen over 40 years, and the 70-yen bar was still overwhelmingly the low-price option beside convenience-store rivals. Akagi stayed committed to the cheap-for-kids concept while facing the same cost, yen and energy pressures Nikkei warned would make low-price strategies harder.